New welder starting from scratch...

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Hello,Im recently out of trade school and am starting a new job doing mobile rail car repair.My main question is about the welder I need...Money isn't an issue as the company is taking care of my equipment.I was looking at a Lincoln Vantage 300(Diesel) as it seems to b able to just about anything you'd ever encounter.I'm going to b doing general car repair in the field so I feel I need something pretty legit.I want something that'll fit in a F350 or the like.I'm also curious as to what other kind of equipment you guys would say is required for this kind of work.Thanks for any and all advice...I'm pretty new to this so I need help!
Reply:That's kind of an odd job that a railroad would hire that out? Are you going to be doing work for a short line or are we talking about at a rail customers location? Anyways, most of what gets repaired on railcars would be brake rigging, grab irons, sill steps and walk boards...things that would require the car to be fixed before the RR will pull the car from a customers location. Everything on the railroad is going to be heavy as hell. You'll need straps, chains and a come-along to hold things in place. A highlift jack or two. A hazmat identification and safety book. Most important would be some blue flags and locks to secure your work area because without that the track is "hot".
Reply:Yes. It's for a group of small narrow rail steam lines are still operated in southeastern paU're right.  Most of my work will b done within the yard so I'm more wondering along the lines of the welder and hand tools etc etcI go for training nxt week but wanna know a lil something before I go
Reply:I would say a set of torches, plasma cutter if money is no issue, Air compressor with large tank 20 gallon 8 or 10hp, impact, lg variaty of sockets, wrenches, screw drivers, variety of pliers, work lights, couple of large pry bars, variety sizes of clamps, couple of ratchet straps always handy, welding helmet, grinding shield, Couple of pairs of welding and work gloves, couple of pairs of coveralls, at least 2 large cap bottle jacks plenty of wood blocking, a heavy duty vice, and a mobile work bench should get ya started you will have to buy as needed for the first couple of years.Vantage 300 kubota ,miller 304 xmt ,lincoln ln 25 pro , ranger 305 G, plenty of other tools of the trade to make the sparks fly.
Reply:Exactly the kind of list I was looking for!  Thanks!The more the better
Reply:You can also make yourself a set of jack stands to hold things up when you get them into position. I work for the railroad in a different capacity and can tell you without a doubt that your new job will keep you busy. A lot of the equipment out there is old, used and ABUSED. Just think of anything that will make heavy lifting easier, hold heavy objects while you weld them or be able to pull them into position and buy/make what you need. The 3 tools I see our car men using more than anything are a fork lift, come along and breaker bars. Welding will be the easy part, figuring out how to do it safely will be the hard part.